A friend has asked me to help him find some information about his father who was a POW in Burma. Apart from his name I have almost nothing to go on at at the moment but we're hoping this changes soon as we are trying to explore his family tree. Again we have very little to go on:] So the information as it stands is: Name: Grifith Llewlyn Roberts POW: Burma WW2 Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Many thanks Ady B-)
Hi Ady, Could this possibly be your man? Surname: ROBERTS First Name(s): Griffith Rank: S. Sgt. Service No: 1670037 Service: A Date of Capture: 15/02/1942 This info is to be found here: Record Details Going by the date of capture he would have probably been involved with the surrender of Singapore? His service number is not an obvious infantry allocation, so he may well be Royal Artillery or other support service section. Others with better knowledge than me will be along to tie this one down. If it is the right man, then being a Singapore captive he would almost certainly have ended up on the Burma Railway at some point. Hope this will be of some use to you. Steve.
Frome searching on COFEPOW, (Terms: G Roberts). I found one Griffith Roberts: Surname:ROBERTS First Name(s):Griffith Rank:S. Sgt. Service No:1670037 Service:A Date of Capture:15/02/1942 On Ancestry, in the UK, Military Campaign Medal and Award Rolls, 1793-1949 database I found: Name:G L Roberts Campaign or Service:Southeast Asia Service Date:1945-1946 Service Location:Asia Regimental Number:Ia 772 Mark
This is a swag of references to the second of the Roberts in my previous posting in the London Gazette: View attachment Gazette Issue 36261 published on the 23 November 1943_ Page 6 of 8.pdf View attachment Gazette Issue 37015 published on the 3 April 1945_ Page 13 of 24.pdf View attachment Gazette Issue 37521 published on the 2 April 1946_ Page 32 of 60.pdf View attachment Gazette Issue 38118 published on the 7 November 1947_ Page 2 of 42.pdf View attachment Gazette Issue 38355 published on the 16 July 1948_ Page 1 of 8.pdf View attachment Gazette Issue 39339 published on the 21 September 1951_ Page 3 of 6.pdf Mark
H*ly Cr*p... You guys got the numbers for the next Euromillions too by any chance... (tips his hat and walks towards the door)
Hi Steve and Mark Many thanks for the speedy response to my latest request. Sorry for the delay in acknowledging them (computer issues:] ) The results you have provided are absolutely amazing, quite simply I would have had no idea where to start. I have just contacted my friend to tell him about the finds that you have given us and he is of the opinion that the first result in both replies is most likely to be his father as there were no tales of OBE status that he can remeber (although I expect that he will soon be having delusions of grandeur given the second result We are going to have to look through the pdf files to see what we can find in there but I'm thinking that a call to Glasgow might be in order. Once again many thanks for your help and any further information or advice would be greatfuly accepted. Best regards Ady B-)
My phone call to Glasgow was cause for dissapointment:] Surname: ROBERTS First Name(s): Griffith Rank: S. Sgt. Service No: 1670037 Service: A Date of Capture: 15/02/1942 Returns a Roberts with the birth date of Aug 03 Whereas our man should have a birthdate of 24.10.12 Even more cunfusingly the 24.10.12 date give a Roberts initialled A G NOT G L Dazed & Confused North Wales Branch:]
Hi, COFEPOW database gives four A G Roberts, in the ranks and one captain: Surname:ROBERTS First Name(s):Albert G Rank:Pte. Service No:5950227 Service:A Date of Capture:15/02/1942 Surname:ROBERTS First Name(s):Alfred G S Rank:Pte.Service No:5833462 Service:A Date of Capture:15/02/1942 Surname:ROBERTS First Name(s):Arthur G Rank:Cpl. Service No:1869933 Service:A Date of Capture:15/02/1942 Surname:ROBERTSON First Name(s):Alan G Rank:Co. Sgt. Maj. Service No:5447 Service:A Date of Capture:15/02/1942 Surname:ROBERTS First Name(s):Arthur George H L Rank:Act. Capt. Service No:99731 Service:A Date of Capture:15/02/1942 Would any of these be your chap?? All captured on 15 February, 1942 - the date of the fall of Singapore. Battle of Singapore - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Remembering 1942 | Australian War Memorial BBC ON THIS DAY | 15 | 1942: Singapore forced to surrender Mark
Dates and names and spellings and family names and real names and clerical errors....................aaaarrrggghh! All part of the fun Ady, welcome to the madhouse that is WW2 research.
Do you have a birth location? On Ancestry I can find only one Alan Roberts birth registered in Q4 1912: Name:Alan Roberts Mother's Maiden Name:Taylor Date of Registration:Oct-Nov-Dec 1912 Registration district:Prestwich Inferred County:Lancashire Volume:8dPage:551 One Arthur G Roberts registered for Q4 in 1912: Name:Arthur G Roberts Mother's Maiden Name:Roberts Date of Registration:Oct-Nov-Dec 1912 Registration district:St Asaph Inferred County: Denbighshire Volume:11b Page:534 Two possible Alfred G Roberts: Name:Alfred G Roberts Mother's Maiden Name:Butler Date of Registration:Oct-Nov-Dec 1912 Registration district:Lambeth Inferred County:London Volume:1d Page:694 Name:Alfred G Roberts Mother's Maiden Name:Warren Date of Registration:Oct-Nov-Dec 1912 Registration district:Bristol Inferred County:Gloucestershire Volume:6a Page:276 Does any of this ring a bell?? Mark
Hi again Mark Unfortunately not I'm afraid. I have just re-read my last post and I can see that I wrote it very badly (appologies to all) The only known details I have for our Mr Roberts are: Name: Griffith Llewelyn Roberts POW: Burma WW2 D.O.B. : 24/10/12 Birthplace: Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales (and he might have enlisted at Caernarfon, North Wales) Do you know if there are/were defined enlistment centres around the country as we have assumed that because my father enlisted Caernarfon that his father might have enlisted there also. When I phoned Glasgow they told me that the Service No: 1670037 for that Griffith Roberts had that Griffth Roberts bithdate as Aug 03 So on that point it seems highly unlikely to be our man (although they did say that mistakes are possible) I then gave them our Griffith Llewelyn Roberts bithdate of 24/10/1912 and they told me that their records show Roberts with the initials A G with that actual birthdate Again this seems not to be correct So our Griffith Llewelyn Roberts at the moment remains untraced but for £30 and a 9-12month wait the Glasgow team would look into it. Many thanks once again to all for helping and to Mark for the previous post especially as I misled you with the duff info. (sorry) Ady B-)
Ady, No problems with any of that, I am learning where to find information whilst doing this for my own purposes and the more practice I get, the better I become. I have gone off on worse tangents in my own research, where I have "found" 200 relatives and then had to delete them when I found the actual ones, all because of the wrong christian name. And as said in the post by bamboo43, it's a part of the fun! Do you have Griffith's birth certificate? I have looked up birth records for Wales and come up with for registration of births: Name:Griffith L Roberts Mother's Maiden Name:Jones Date of Registration:Oct-Nov-Dec 1912 Registration district:Festiniog Inferred County:Merionethshire Volume:11b Page:635 Name:Griffith T Roberts Mother's Maiden Name:Williams Date of Registration:Oct-Nov-Dec 1912 Registration district:Festiniog Inferred County:Merionethshire Volume:11b Page:632 Mark
Hi Mark That's our man: Name:Griffith L Roberts Mother's Maiden Name:Jones Date of Registration:Oct-Nov-Dec 1912 Registration district:Festiniog Inferred County:Merionethshire Volume:11b Page:635 Please can I ask what you used to look up this info. as Griffith L Roberts Mother's Maiden Name might not have been known to us previously (but I'll have to check). Unfortunately the department that deals with birth cerificates for that area have major staffing issues and have been reluctant to communicate with my mate (son of Griffith Llewelyn Roberts) but we are hoping that the hard cash and direct contact approach might sway thier opinion:] To satisfy the Glasgow requirements we need a Death Certificate, £30 and 9-12months worth of patience as that is their predicted waiting time for personal records:] Easy really! Thanks once again for all your help. Any further advice would, as ever, be greatly appreciated. Ady B-)
Ady, Sorry, I am usually good at giving sources, I found the record on Ancestry, searching for Griffiths Roberts, born 1912 in Festiniog, Wales. Do you have the details of death? Name:Griffith Llewelyn Roberts Birth Date:24 Oct 1912 Date of Registration:Feb 1985 Age at Death:72 Registration district:Aberconwy Inferred County:Gwynedd Volume:25 Page:495 Also from Ancestry. If you want copies of the certificates you can order from: https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp Mark
Hi Mark that's absolutely brilliant Many thanks, I'm just about to phone my mate to check if he has all these details Thanks again Ady B-)
Hi Mark That's our man: Name:Griffith L Roberts Mother's Maiden Name:Jones Date of Registration:Oct-Nov-Dec 1912 Registration district:Festiniog Inferred County:Merionethshire Volume:11b Page:635 Please can I ask what you used to look up this info. as Griffith L Roberts Mother's Maiden Name might not have been known to us previously (but I'll have to check). Unfortunately the department that deals with birth cerificates for that area have major staffing issues and have been reluctant to communicate with my mate (son of Griffith Llewelyn Roberts) but we are hoping that the hard cash and direct contact approach might sway thier opinion:] To satisfy the Glasgow requirements we need a Death Certificate, £30 and 9-12months worth of patience as that is their predicted waiting time for personal records:] Easy really! Thanks once again for all your help. Any further advice would, as ever, be greatly appreciated. Ady B-) Great work Mark, impressive digging mate!
Ady, this is the info that you need to order the death certificate Name: Griffith Llewelyn Roberts Birth Date: 24 Oct 1912 Date of Registration: Feb 1985 Age at Death: 72 Registration district: Aberconwy Inferred County: Gwynedd Volume: 25 Page: 495
